Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730–1805: In Two Volumes

45. Manifestations of the Beneficence of Divine Providence Towards America [1795]

- 4 5 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE BENEFICENCE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE TOWARDS AMERICA Bishop James Madison RICHMOND I 7 9 5 BISHOP jAMES MADISON (I749-I812). A cousin of President James Madison, Madison was educated as a lawyer under George Wythe after graduation with high honors from the College of William and Mary in I 77 I. He became a professor of philosophy and mathematics at the college but soon decided upon the ministry. He was ordained in England in I775 as an Anglican priest. Two years later he became presideat of William and Mary and held that position until his death. A strong advocate of independence, he went so far, we are told, as to speak of the republic-rather than kingdom-Of heaven. He served as the captain of a militia company of his students and saw considerable action during the Revolution. After the war, Madison devoted himself to reviving the College of William and Mary; in I784 he taught political economy using Adam Smith's Wealth ofNations as a textbook. As a surveyor and cartographer, he established the boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania and later drew the map of Virginia commonly called Madison's Map (issued first in I807 and corrected in 1818). He was a leading scientist of the day and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson about scientific matters. Madison also devoted himself to the reorganization of the Episcopal Church in Virginia after the war. Consecrated the first Bishop of Virginia (in Canterbury in 1790), he was the third of three American bishops through whom the episcopate came to the United States. Disestablished and with its properties under attack, the church faced formidable problems that, rather than being solved during Madison's tenure, further deepened. The sermon reprinted here was preached on February I9, 1795, proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving and prayer by President Washington. qo6 MANIFESTATION OF THE Beneficence of Divine PROVIDENCE TowARDS AMERICA. • /1. DISC 0 U R S E, Dtlwtrttlltr'l7;urfdaythe 19th of February, 1,5, hntrg tht day rtcomflltndtd by the Pl.lSIDENT •fthe United States, fw gtflt• r11l 'Ihakfgivitrg and Pr11ytr. "JGII By B I s H 0 p M A D I s 0 N. ~ PUIILlSH!D 11t tiM reguljl of tht AUDIT 0 R S. R I C H M 0 N D: PrinttJ By THoMAS NICOLSON, J19S• ~ Only fear the Lord, and serve him; for consider how great things he hath done for you. ~ [I] Samuel XII. 2[4]. rethren, There are few situations more interesting to the human race, than that which the people of America this day presents. The temples of the living God are "'=":.........;;=....-.::=-- every where, throughout this rising empire, this day, crowded, I trust, with worshippers, whose hearts, impressed with a just and lively sense of the great things, which he hath done for them, pour forth, in unison, the grateful tribute of praise and thanksgiving. Yes, this day, brethren, "the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous"; and with reason, for the history of nations doth not exhibit a people who ever had more cause to offer up to the great author of every good the most fervent expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving. Let, my brethren, the sons of irreligion, wrapped in their dark and gloomy system of fatality, refuse to open their eyes to the great luminous proofs of providential government, which America displays; let them turn from a light, which their weak vision cannot bear; but let the righteous, let those who trust in God, who can trace in that good and glorious being, the relations of father, friend and governor, let them, with eagle eyes look up to that full blaze of salvation, which he hath vouchsafed to this new world. Permit me then, upon this occasion, to turn your attention to those great things, which the Lord hath done for us, to those manifold displays of divine providence, which the history of America exhibits; and let the subject afford an opportunity to revive within us sentiments of lively gratitude, and excite sincere resolutions to fear the Lord, and to serve him; in a word, to increase daily in piety, and in all those noble affections of the soul which dignify the christian and the patriot. I. Who can tell how many ages had been swallowed up in the allabsorbing gulph of...